Jewish Christianity

Jewish Christianity was the messianic Jewish movement of the 1st century AD which would evolve into modern Christianity. The earliest Christians were Jews, with the first to believe in Jesus' resurrection being the remaining eleven of his Twelve Apostles (Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus and committed suicide) and a handful of women, including Mary Magdalene (all of whom were from rural Galilee in northern Israel). They came to believe in the resurrection after returning to Galilee, and they told others in Galilee that Jesus had been raised, leading to some people converting. After the heat died down, they returned to Jerusalem, which became the base of the Christian operation. Saint Peter and James the Just took charge of the small but growing community, which comprised the Jewish locals of the capital. Peter headed the mission to convert Jews to the new faith, and only Jews were targeted by Peter's missions.

However, Paul the Apostle came to believe that Jesus' message was for all people, including the Gentiles, even those who did not observe Jewish law (circumcision, observing the Sabbath, keeping kosher, etc.), and, due to the Jews' resistance to his messages, he preached among the gentiles. Over the next four centuries, there were occasionally Jewish Christian communities in Jordan or Egypt, but they never played a huge role in the ongoing life of the Christian Church at large, almost always being on the margins. By the second part of the 1st century, the Jewish Christians were becoming marginalized, as Paul was intent on establishing communities of believers on pagan soil, and he was the only massively effective evangelist of the 1st century. His churches grew even after he relocated to evangelize elsewhere, comprised exclusively or almost exclusively of pagan converts.

Jewish Christianity declined following the First Jewish-Roman War of 66-73 AD, with the Christians being indifferent to the Jewish uprising against the Romans and the Romans' subsequent destruction of the Second Temple. Following the crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135, the Jews were treated differently from Christians when they were banished from Jerusalem, solidifying the split between the two faiths. Attempts by the "Judaizers" to force gentiles to adopt Jewish customs in order to become Christians were defeated at the Council of Jerusalem in 50 AD and several times afterwards, and the faith almost disappeared. It was not until the rise of Messianic Judaism in the 20th century that the Jewish Christian movement was revived.